Internet Scams: Can't Just Blame The Scammers?

from the helllllloooooo-sucker dept

For years, we've been wondering how anyone could possibly still fall for a Nigerian 419 advanced fee scam -- and yet they keep on coming as people keep falling for them. With 419s, a lot of the time the motivating factor was greed, which made it hard to feel sorry for the victims who were, basically, trying to steal millions of dollars. However, should we feel sorry for those conned in other ways online? After all, phishing scams have been around for years, and the population of newbies is shrinking as people get more experienced online... So, the other theory is that a lot of people are just incredibly gullible online and seem to fall for all sorts of scams -- sometimes without realizing they'd been had. Perhaps too many people are snorting oxytocin-based nasal sprays. Admittedly, many of the newer scams are much more sophisticated -- and it's likely that some perfectly skeptical people fall for such scams in a moment of weakness. However, at some point, do the victims of these scams need to admit that they fell for something when they should have known better? Update: And, now, it looks like some banks are getting fed up with gullible customers as well, leading to increased fees and not as much reimbursement for victims of phishing scams.

After all...

After all, phishing scams have been around for years, and the population of newbies is shrinking as people get more experienced onlineGot anything to back this up? No? Then I'd like to rebut your hypothesis that people are getting smarter with this graphic:http://fishki.net/podborka2/16/pikso06.jpg

Re: After all...

I didn't say people were getting smarter... just the opposite. All I said was that newbies are coming online at a slower pace as we reach a higher saturation level. That says nothing about their overall intelligence. In fact, the article basically suggests the opposite.